Gender Role Attitudes of Female Students in Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools in Istanbul

Sex Roles (2013) 69:455468 DOI 10.1007/s11199-013-0277-0

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Gender Role Attitudes of Female Students in Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools in Istanbul

Ayse Burcin Erarslan & Bruce Rankin

Published online: 24 March 2013# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract This study examines the relationship between school type and gender role attitudes among 295 female high school seniors attending four high schools, two single-sex and two coeducational. The schools are located in Istanbul, Turkey, where a recent proposal to establish a system of girls schools has sparked a lively public debate about the advantages of single-sex schooling as a means of addressing the problem of lower female educational attainment. The main research question is whether the gender composition of schools has an impact on gender role attitudes, which we operationalize as attitudes toward gender roles in three domains: Family life, work life, and social life. Statistical analysis based on multiple regression show that, net of family background characteristics, students attending single-sex schools have more egalitarian attitudes toward family life roles than coeducational students, but school type does not matter for work and social life role attitudes. The socioeconomic composition of schools is also important, with students attending schools in the high socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhood having more egalitarian views on gender roles in family and social life.

Keywords Gender role attitudes . High school . Single-sex schools . Coeducation . Socioeconomic background . Neighborhoods . Turkey

Introduction

The recent rise in the number of single-sex schools in the U.S. and in some European countries has fueled debates over the advantages and disadvantages of single-sex in comparison to coeducational schooling (Smithers and Robinson 2006; Smyth 2010). In Turkey, a country with a long history of separate schools for girls and boys that it abandoned over time, support for a return to single-sex education, especially for girls, has been increasing (Hurriyet 2004, 2010; Ntvmsnbc 2009). This has sparked similar and often highly politicized debates, such that school choice has become a major concern not only for families, but also for policy-makers and government (Hurriyet 2010).

While academic benefits have received the bulk of public and scholarly attention (Riordan 2002; Lee and Bryk 1986), other outcomes have been studied all over the world. Particularly since some socialization into...